App-only Hotel Booking Startup SavvyMob Raises $1M in Seed Funding

Bengaluru-based app-only hotel booking startup, SavvyMob that offers last-minute hotel bookings to customers, has raised $1 million from from ex-Infosys Director TV Mohandas Pai and online fundraising platform LetsVenture. Its app is available for Android and iOS users. The company aims to utilize the raised funding for its expansion, strengthen its technology team and improve the product.

Currently, the startup offers its services in 50 Indian cities and also plans to expand its reach into another 50 cities over next one year. Founded in 2013 by former AOL executives Bikram Sohal and Gappan Annamalai, SavvyMob is an on-demand mobile marketplace offering unsold hotel inventory to last minute travellers at the affordable price.

“We will be adding on-demand hotel inventory of over 5,000 hotels across over 100 cities in India onto our mobile marketplace in the coming few months,” Bikram said.

Its competitor RoomsTonite recently raised an angel funding of $1.5 million from a bunch of investors. Other players which are operating in the budget hotel aggregator space include Oyo Rooms, Zo Rooms and Deyor Rooms among others. Even Paytm has also announced its foray into this space, partnered with Goibibo, Ezeego1 and TSI Yatra and will offer international hotels by tying up with platforms like Expedia and Booking.com.